Officials of Air Force Reserve Command’s 920th Rescue Wing at Patrick AFB, Fla., tell Florida Today that as many as 40 percent of its pararescuemen will retire over the next two to five years. This is one of the tough-to-pass-the-training battlefield airmen fields that has prompted Air Force recruiters to head to extreme sports events. The usual draw for the unit of three to four new recruits a year, officials tell the newspaper, will no longer suffice. The wing has identified a unit recruiter and painted murals on equipment trailers to help attract attention. (Read the article here.)
A new Air Force plan for how many fighters it needs in the next decade marks a sharp upturn from what it thought it needed just seven years ago. But analysts worry that the aspirational plan now in Congress' hands doesn’t make a tight enough connection to national strategy.
